Tag Archives: Jeremiah

At MGPC we’re setting out on making our way through Jeremiah on Sunday nights. This follows on from Psalms and John’s Gospel.Graeme Goldsworthy identifies the Gospel in Jeremiah.

We should not be put off by Jeremiah’s reputation as the gloomy or “weeping” prophet. He has much encouragement to offer the faithful. To be sure, he is remarkable for the way he reveals his feelings and the torment of his soul. This is not surprising given the nature of his message and the constant opposition by most of his fellow Israelites. Yet, even his experience of this sadness and his suffering are a foreshadowing of the anguish of Jesus as he faces even more harrowing torments, again from fellow Israelites, that lead to his death on the cross. Redemption comes through pain, not through avoiding it. The gospel is foreshadowed by Jeremiah’s message and his personal involvement in it. By his words and suffering he points to the sovereign grace of God in his control over world history and his faithfulness to his covenant that will be fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Jack Lundbom’s magisterial commentary on Jeremiah is living up to its promise.
On God’s call and Jeremiah’s response in Chapter 1:

Yahweh begins the present dialogue in grand hyperbole. He says he knew Jeremiah before he was formed in the belly of his mother; that a consecration took place before he was born; and at this very early time — known only to himself — Jeremiah was designated a prophet to the nations. A stunning word to a young boy, who, when he makes his response, declares that he may be as far behind in the march of divine events as Yahweh is ahead.
Jeremiah’s demur is brief. He says only that he does not know how to speak He is but a boy. Very well, but Jeremiah cannot refuse the call for this or any other reason. He is to be Yahweh’s messenger, going on whatever errands Yahweh sends him and speaking whatever Yahweh commands him to speak. That should make things a bit easier. But will it? Something remains unexpressed. Jeremiah is afraid. Yahweh perceives this and tells him not to be afraid, giving him what may be at the original oracle’s end reassurance and the promise of rescue.

The beginning of Gospel proclamation was not eye-witnesses trying to convince those who had not seen, but one group of eye-witnesses seeking to help other eye-witnesses understand what they all had seen. Even as Gospel proclamation continued on it was grounded in events that had happened and been seen and experienced.
From Dale Ralph Davis:

What does one make of all that? These were things that the early preachers of the gospel said and preached as eyewitnesses, as men who had been there. Here’s the crucial point: when they were preaching these things, they were preaching to other eyewitnesses, and they were often preaching to a lot of hostile eyewitnesses. If what the preachers were saying was not true, those hostile eyewitnesses would have exposed it as a fraud in the first century and you would never have heard of Christianity. Why didn’t that happen? Because even the hostile hearers could not dispute the truth and accuracy of what these original evangelists were proclaiming. When you preach in front of hostile hearers, you have to be careful with your facts. So, if you resist the gospel, do not claim that there is not enough evidence. There is evidence for you to deal with.

A life that knows the power of the resurrection of Jesus will experience growth in character through both joy and pain according to Dale Ralph Davis:

You remember what Paul says in Philippians 3 in that marvellous verse, ‘That I may know him and the power of the resurrection’ (v. 10). What does that involve? To know Jesus is to know transformation of character, liberation from bandage, power through distress and difficulties; it is to know the power of his resurrection.
Some people today think that this is all that knowing Jesus involves, that it is just the hoopla of the power and the glory. But there is an ‘and’ in that sentence. What does knowing Jesus mean? ‘To know the power of his resurrection AND the fellowship of his sufferings, being shaped like him in his death.’ Paul is saying that if you are going to know Jesus, you are going to be balancing on a paradox. There is going to be a ‘both/and’: there is going to be a certain tension in God’s truth. So does God grant mighty deliverances and amazing providences and solid pleasures to those who serve him?
Yes, but faith does not guarantee immunity from terrible distress and need. If Jeremiah gives us any clue it is that in his mysterious mercy and in his strange kindness God may not bring us out of our miseries in our lifetime. It is balancing on a paradox of delight and distress.

Dale Ralph Davis writes about the novel insistence of Yahweh that his people have no other gods, and what that reveals about Yahweh and the way he relates to his people.

Whoever heard of a god who demanded exclusive loyalty? There was no so-called god or goddess in the whole ancient near east who demanded exclusive devotion. Ishtar did not care if you worshipped Marduk part of the time. They did not care if you had a private shrine to some oak tree in your garden. It did not matter. It was OK. They were very tolerant. Why was this God utterly intolerant of any rivals?
It is because there was something in Israel called the covenant. That covenant was exclusive, like a marriage covenant, with Yahweh as the husband and Israel as his bride. It was to be an exclusive relationship. Any time, of course, that there is a breach in an exclusive relationship it ought to drive the one who is wronged into a fury. There is a proper kind of jealousy in love, and if it is not there, there is something wrong with the love. If the wife or the husband is being unfaithful, the other does not just say, ‘Well, you win some, you lose some.’ No, it should make you angry. It should infuriate you. It should stir up the proper jealousy of love. That is what you have in the fury of Yahweh, when he says, ‘they have forsaken me; they have burned incense to other gods; they have bowed down to the works of their hands.’ There ought to be a fire in love. And there is with Yahweh.
Of course, we are a little bit different from Judah. His problem with us is not some graven image as such. Our idols are a little more sophisticated. It might be fixation on our future. It might be security or comfort or addiction. It may be a little harder to detect. But Yahweh is simply fanatical in his Word about exclusive devotion to him.

Songs of preparation: O Praise The LORD, Jerusalem, Give Thanks and Amazing Grace.
Prayer of adoration and confession: Thankful to God for His work of creation; sorrowful, but profoundly thankful, for that within ourselves that made God’s work of recreation through Christ necessary.
Song of assurance, affirmation, doxology: The Family Prayer Song, the Apostles’ Creed, and Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.
Continuing reading: Revelation 10:1-11 continues the description of the interlude between the 6th and 7th trumpets.
Praise: Speak, O Lord.
Bible reading and sermon: Jeremiah 31:7-26 – Dry Your Tears, God speaks of the response of His people as He gathers them to Himself.
Prayer, tithes and offerings.
Closing song: How Great Thou Art.